|
Round The States
New Delhi, 4 June 2009
Special Status
Category
NEW BUZZWORD AMONG
STATES
By Insaf
Special status seems to be the new buzzwords resounding in
States from East to West, North to South India.
After Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, it is the turn of his counterpart
Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan to demand special State status. Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Orissa, Goa and Puducherry too have
joined the me-too chorus. Recall, Nitish Kumar created a flutter prior to the
elections results when he voiced his support for any Government at the Centre
which granted Bihar special category status.
The State suffers from endemic economic backwardness. The case of Rajasthan is slightly different.
After a lull of 10-years, Gehlot has reiterated his special status demand.
Plainly, he intends in-cashing the fact that the Congress is ruling both at the
Centre and the State. According to him, the large desert State with a unique
topography is perennially facing acute shortages, receding ground water levels,
scanty rainfall, poor roads, medical and housing facilities. Wherein providing
basic facilities like bijli, sadak, paani
was extremely difficult and arduous task. However, politically speaking
granting special status to both States is easier said than done
Arguably, if large, mainstream States are given special
treatment, the meaning of the word ‘special’ would blur. Uttar Pradesh could be
next in line with a similar demand. Presently, 11 small States flaunt the
special status tag. Namely, the seven North-eastern States,
Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir
and Himachal Pradesh. Not many are aware that ‘special’ status is accorded to
States having harsh terrain, inadequate economic and social infrastructure,
backwardness, predominant tribal population and a weak resource base. The
special State status is in the context of Centre-State finances. It entails a
State getting a bigger share of the Centre's resource pie and significant
excise duty concessions to help industrial development. Apart from that, 30% of
the Centre's gross budgetary support for Plan expenditure goes to
special-category States. Thus, given this backdrop any change in the share of
the Central assistance pie going to the 11 special category States would raise
controversy, within the group and without. Better to let sleeping dogs lie!
* * * *
Lover’s Tiff In
Karnataka?
All appears not to be well with the BJP in Karnataka. Even
as Chief Minister Yediyurappa uncorked the champagne at the first anniversary
party of the first BJP Government in the South, the fizz seems to have
evaporated. Four key Ministers and 12 MLAs gave the party a skip. Ostensibly to
express their angst against the Chief Minister’s emerging as a power centre
“following the big victory in the Lok Sabha
polls.” Known as the Bellary brigade, the
leaders are reportedly close to the famous Reddy brothers of Bellary’s iron ore mines who played a major
role in ensuring the BJP’s electoral win last year. Between them the brothers
control 40 of the BJP’s 116 MLAs in the Assembly. Known as Yediyurappa’s
‘alternate’ ego, the Reddy’s are angry with the Chief Minister for giving
preference to his son over his friends. All eyes are on Yediyurappa, will he
make up? It is a moot point if it ends
in being only a lovers tiff.
* * * *
Electoral Winds Of
Change In Gujarat
Electoral winds of change are all set to sweep Gujarat. In an unprecedented move, the Gujarat State
Election Commission (SEC) intends barring people above the age of 65 years from
contesting any local body election. Not only that. Only a graduate can contest
the post of a municipal councilor. With an intention to overhaul, the manner in
which local self-Government bodies, both in rural and urban areas, are
constituted, the SEC has also recommended disqualification of any candidate who
has an FIR against his/her name and has been charged. Presently, only those who
have been convicted are ineligible for election. Among the various other
suggestions, the draft proposal also intends giving the voters the right of recall
their non-performing representatives. Unlike the present practice of angutha chaaps being elected to
Panchayats, now a candidate would need a SSC qualifications to be eligible for
village panchayat polls and be 12th class pass to qualify for a
Taluk / District Panchayat or Municipal polls. Voting is also to be made
compulsory across the State. It remains to be seen if the word of the SEC will
change the way elections are fought.
* * * *
NREGS Thrust In
Rajasthan
Rajasthan is likely to see the State Administration going
full steam ahead on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is eager to strengthen the job scheme and evolve a
corruption-free system in its implementation, as urged by Magsasay award winner
Aruna Roy and her Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan on Sunday last. He has also responded positively to her
suggestion for setting up a social audit unit in the State to look into the
functioning of the job schemes and other departments. Aruna Roy also wants the
CM to improve the implementation of the Right to Information Act on two fronts:
one, by recruiting more personnel and two by pro-active disclosure campaigns by
the government so that people are regularly informed. Obviously, Gehlot would like
to cash in on the pro-poor NREGS which
enabled the Congress to do remarkably well in the recent elections.
* * * *
Cyclone Aila Adds
To CPM Woes In W Bengal
West Bengal continues to hog the headlines for
all the wrong reasons. First it was a resounding defeat of the Red Brigade in
its home State, now cyclone Aila continues to wreck havoc on the State even as
a harried and hapless Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya tries to grapple
with the people’s rising anger. In fact,
the cyclone has exposed how ill-equipped the State machinery is to deal with
this devastation that has wrought destruction on the people in all the19
districts, specially North and South 24 Parganas. Worse, there is total lack of
any relief and rehabilitation measures. Sundarbans which has taken the hardest
hit. In fact, the Chief Minister has had to beat a hasty retreat in the all the
cyclone-affected districts. Needless to say this natural calamity is just a
manifestation that the CPM better set its house in order before 2011 when the
State Assembly elections are due and it would have to face the people’s fury.
* * * *
Water Rationing In
MP
Look at the irony. There is water-water everywhere in West Bengal but
not a drop to drink in parched Madhya Pradesh. In a first of sorts, a tiny
Municipal body in Sehore town is all set to issue water cards to residents to
ensure rationing and equitable distribution of liquid gold. Each resident will
get 50 litres of water per day. Shockingly, Sehore gets water once in four days
while the other towns in MP get water once in two days. In fact, the State
Government has imposed preventive measure under Section 144 of the Criminal
Procedure Code around the 122-km long water supply pipelines to protect them
from any ‘deliberate’ damage. With taps running dry in many towns, violence is
rocking the State like never before. Already, seven murders have taken place
and over 45 cases of violence reported from all over the State. Year after year
the story is same. Parched throats crying for water and a ‘dried-up’ Government
coming up with shriveled ideas.
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
|
Archives 
